Postrelease Movements of Captive-Reared Ozark Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi)

Abstract

Abstract Postrelease movements can determine the success of wildlife translocations. We monitored movements of 36 captive-reared Ozark Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) released to augment wild populations at two sites on the North Fork of the White River (Missouri, USA). We used radiotelemetry to collect 3610 Hellbender locations from May 2008 to August 2009. We quantified movements at multiple spatio-temporal scales and made comparisons between two seasons of monitoring (1 = release–December 2008; 2 = January 2009–August 2009). At the finest (daily) scale, most Hellbenders (90%–94% per season) were highly sedentary (≥50% of observations indicated no movement). Typical distances between daily locations when Hellbenders moved were 20 m between daily locations, and virtually...